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Saturday, 20 June 2015

The Humble(r) War Correspondant

Following on from my article about the Thorakitai Forward Observer I thought it would be a good time to shine the spotlight on another underrated unit that I try to field often and tend to get asked about a lot.

Infinity has a lot of units that are excellent without being overtly strong and therefore are overlooked in favour of more obvious options. This is especially true when these units have been improved in N3 in some way or are new units outright so people don't have experience with them.

So I'd like to present to you the cheapest trooper in the game. The-equally-humble-if-not-humbler War Correspondent, or Warcor for short.

Warcors are AVA 1 for every human faction in the game, including all sectorials, but many people haven't even looked twice at them. So let me try and change that.

First, lets take a look at their base qualities. They are as accurate as Yuan Yuans, better fighters than Dakinis, smarter than Fusiliers and in better shape than Ghulams. Oh, and they have Sixth Sense L1 or an Aerocam (360 Visor) as well. So how much are you being asked to pay for a fighter of such prodigious capability? Ten points? Twelve?

How about three.

Yeah sure they are Irregular, un-armoured and they don't have any lethal weapons - aside from their stealthy, shock knives - but they definitely shouldn't be neglected.

War Correspondent - Hero of the Imperium!

Frankly, they merit consideration simply by the virtue of being the cheapest troopers available. Keep in mind that they can spend orders and make AROs just like anyone else so they can:

Discover camo/impersonation markers and stop them from re-camoing/impersonating.

Force your opponent to spend at least half an order killing them at some point.

Hold table areas for Frontline, Quadrant Control and Supremacy.

Have their Irregular order made Regular for a turn and be used for a Coordinated Order.

Engage enemy forces that get too close.

Simply put, they get in the way. They clog up the table and make it harder for your opponent to manoeuvre and attack. Sometimes just having that extra model with decent WIP and their own order can be helpful especially for armies with generally expensive troops (such as Aleph, Military Orders, JSA) that don't tend to have more than a single combat group.

All of this may seem really obvious so far but it's worth stating that it is unprecedented for a model that provides an order to be this cheap.

That's not all though because they actually have a pretty decent selection of skills and equipment too. This is important because it sets them apart from servant remotes which are equally cheap but practically unarmed. They can be used to:

WIP 13 is pretty decent and the flash pulse has solid range brackets. Their low burst value isn't an issue in ARO and they can be used for 'hail Mary' active attacks to try and blind troublesome enemies. They have a solid defensive skill and can still attack with a pistol at short range - forcing targets to pass two BTS saves vs. Damage 11 or be Stunned and effectively useless for a turn.

They also have a couple of Niche uses such as:

Providing a cheap regular order in a Joan of Arc/Wallace Inspiring Leadership army.

Giving a small boost for unlocking Military Specialities in an ITS Campaign Tournament.

What's more, they can do all this without even taking up a slot in your main combat group because they can happily sit in a combat group by themselves as they are pretty much self-sufficient and their low cost means that they won't detract much from your main group.

Generally I'll put them prone on a building somewhere with excellent lines of sight, albeit out of the way of enemy snipers, or I'll use them to improve the web of overlapping AROs within my deployment zone. I'll also typically use them as a 'free' discover attempt on turn one if I can. Because of their low cost I can afford to put them in a place that could be considered too exposed for another more valuable unit.

They are especially useful in Steel Phalanx because most of their troops tend to be concentrated into a couple of places on the battlefield due to being linked and the Warcor gives the option of defending an extra approach.

Sure, these guys will never be first pick for an army (unless you are playing Joan) but there are few other places you can get so much value for three points. So I hope you'll consider these militant reporters in the future!

3 comments:

I used these guys for the first thing this weekend and boy were they great? I mean what are you really going to do with 3 points to, make another paramedic to help you kill your own guys? If you don't have a Warcor model what do you suggest? Currently I am using the awkward saluting alguaciles from the Corregidor starter painted up to look like a starwars rebel pilot.